Social Sundays is back for another edition of keeping San Antonio's car culture alive, and this time, we are in front of the official Spurs shop cheering on our team in the finals-

Oh dear.

Grief aside, the La Cantera plaza was brimming with cars that are hotter than a New York riot. Spurs merch can be seen in front of the shop, on cars, and people too. It's clear that this post will have an emphasis on our NBA team, but know that anyone in SA couldn't have guessed they'd make it this far to the Finals. The show hosts root for the Spurs, as well as many other attendees that may also hold their own events outside of Social Sundays. Why not gather at The Rock then? Toss in rain, shine, and heat together with the venue's style of dealing with the show.

This is the first car show I took photos in aspect ratios other than the default wide shot used in many of my previous adventures. What I first experimented with on Pixelfed using LEGO model cars earlier in the week now make an appearance in 4:3 and 1:1 ratios throughout my Fediverse profile, as well as this very post at the end section. They are ratio preferences I accidentally found when playing with Fossify's Camera app functions in logo form. I must say, they are quite fun to shoot with and will definitely be sought after in my next collection of photo albums to come.

The center of the plaza had loads of exotics parked around, including a silver C5 Corvette with an exhaust tip sticking out from the hood. By this point in my time going to Social Sundays events, I am used to seeing the usual cars and people that grace the presence of hundreds of spectators once every month. I am also used to seeing an oddball car or two that I may fawn over just because of its rarity in the sea of Porsches and other entry-level luxury sports cars. Literally the fifth car I saw in the center space, and it's a freaking Ferrari Daytona SP3, smack bang middle of the tent in a cream color. What is no doubt the most expensive car I've personally seen is parked without any fencing restriction, available for someone to just touch it if they were so desperate to. I obviously did not lay my fingers on it, but I went back and took another photo of the car after a previous round of shots due to craving more of the vehicle's design cues. It's so beautifully styled, the color is luxurious, the wheels are enormous, and it has a plain V12 without a hybrid system that sounds like a pure combustion engine.

If there was a poll on Social Sundays' Instagram page for nominating show cars as the "Show car of the month" for each event, then I'd vote the SP3 on a squeaky dime. My honorable award would go to the red 30's Rolls-Royce as sort of a loser's prize for not crashing the show totally. Am I inventing something interactive for Dennis and Co. to connect the audience with the shows monthly? Well, the same exotics or antiques can't win the show every month, but broadening this designation towards cars parked away from the main attraction leaves a ton of headroom for owners to catch the spotlight, as well as boost their own following online. I believe it may encourage more drivers to participate in this contest and pull in more oddball cars, which is a tick in my bucket. It may not be the Hot Wheels Legends tour, but it'll certainly be a system to engage people from my local area into this friendly competition of showing off cool cars and meeting the great faces behind a wheel. For now, it may stay as my own contest to be seen on Storie's of Mark.

Beyond the heaven of exotics and other luxury automobiles, the show stretches three lots back from the main plaza. I said that correctly. If you walk past the Spurs shop, you can see one of Fiesta Texas' rides standing tall in the distance. That's how close this show is from the once-famous Cars & Coffee destination. Anyways, the lot next to the center plaza had groups of cars all parked specifically next to each other. So your Mustang, Camaro, Corvette, JDM, and German cars are conveniently sitting together to make a decent group photo opportunity. Pretty common cars with strong alliances so far.

Further towards the entrance to the plaza lot is another. This time, they are all sporadically parked in what is already a packed lot with traffic rolling through the one-way driving lane like vultures waiting for an empty spot to snatch as prey. In reality, some spectators were hoping to find parking space in this small area close to the show for the convenience of not walking from any of the lots further away from the plaza. This explains why there are such regular people movers mixed with common sports cars in my photos I uploaded to Pixelfed. You can mistake it as the parking lot for a private gym in the northside of SA, but no. This is The Rock.

How typical that this lot is a mix of random passenger cars. Last year's event at this location had a similar selection of vehicles parked in the lot, which gave the notion that anything further than here is unnecessary to explore as the common wheels increase. Sure, it may begin to look like you're going back to the real world, but there can be the odd one hiding away from the action. If the owner came too late to the show, they simply will not find adequate parking somewhere like the lot closest to the plaza. What if the next available parking space is in the dirt lot, enterable from the asphalt one? I can assure you that a stanced car or two managed to roll in what is quite the Texas scenery for parking space. It's also quiet there too.

Rocks are a concern when walking around in this dirt lot, as well as the mosquitos and gnats floating over my legs. The rocks are huge and can easily unsettle when walked over. Luckily, I didn't trip over one at any point in my time at this space, but there were definitely cars in this lot that I wouldn't have otherwise driven in. A pair of C8 Corvettes, a Civic Type R, Challengers, a 180SX, Mark 5 Supras, and a black Bimmer are amongst the cars I'd have second doubts on ever driving over a dirt road with big rocks to make up for lost gravel. Maybe there's an edge to driving a lowered car on a dirt road. If so, email me your tip to navigating the wet Texas season, reader. We're lucky that the rain cell that blew over La Cantera during the show only fell slightly. Nonetheless, the dirt lot remained a little dry and not muddy. Good ending for Volk owners.

Guess what? The parking didn't end at this square lot because it went on a little bit more through a singular dirt road! I discovered that a Dodge Charger is the farthest show car from Social Sundays at The Rock. I can't think of nothing more to write about beyond this point, but I remember walking back to civilization for good.

A bit of a distance to walk back to the crowded area, but it sure was a workout navigating today's show. I felt like I've seen every possible parking lot with a show-like car in it, spoken to people around the vendors, and gotten my goodies' worth of freebies to store in my backpack. A tumbler from Cavender Cadillac, a tote bag & fridge magnet from State Farm, a guaranteed-free oil change from Spotless, and a bandana from the Social Sundays booth (Thank you Carol!). Anyone's booth that I didn't go to today, I didn't forget. There's always the next show I can meet you kind vendors when I'm not lost in gazing.

It was approaching the last hour of the show's running until noon, and more of the current show-goers are exiting to wrap their day up, leaving empty parking spots for late bloomers to join in on the event. To be fair, the slight rain in the area earlier did drive people out, but not by too much. Wet weather does give you, the spectator, an opportunity to see cabriolets converting to a closed soft-top, so rain makes you see more of a luxury car's functioning electronics. The weather also gave me an opportunity to attempt shooting photos of cars with rain drops on their body. This was the plan I had in mind just after the rain came down, but it was short-lived. So much sweat-drenched walking later, and I went to the sidewalk outside the plaza to watch cars go fast. The thought of taking pictures of wet cars with a lot of rain drops on them had faded away, and I went to making clips of the ongoing congregation. Looking back at my photos, I actually snapped wet cars without myself realizing.

Initially, I had thought this location would be too small for showing off a build's performance. Turns out that I was wrong. I wasn't considering recording such clips of cars whizzing by me the entire time I knew about this Social Sundays event. Turns out I was wrong again. I knew I had to make content for the Odysee channel, but I enjoyed the thrill of almost being ran over by a speeding vehicle or two. The security men around me didn't seem to, sadly.

Rant incoming for the next two paragraphs.

Given that we are on La Cantera turf where security is rampant and ready to police anyone seemingly "standing" on the sidewalk, I wasn't surprised. Standing on a sidewalk where cars are speeding is the risk we as spectators, as well as passing pedestrians who are unaware of the event in the plaza, take for granted, and it is our responsibility for doing so regardless of a bad situation. Same logic applies to a pedestrian walking at night with less-than-crowded roads, and the few drivers moving quickly through an intersection because they are free of traffic congestion. Any pedestrian can still get mowed over for simply being on the sidewalk, which is evident every other month on the news. I don't see how "standing" on a sidewalk is a means for being shooed away to the other one across the road, which comes off as a senseless and lazy excuse to break up the crowd in order to initiate a scare tactic that a 5-year-old can fright over. What if cars on the opposing lane are speeding too? It doesn't matter, really. Even I got told to "not stand and keep moving" for taking a quick photo of a Mustang Boss 302 pair slowly entering the exit road out of the entrance to The Rock!

I remember SAPD directing spectators, who were standing in the breakdown lane of the highway entrance near the Porsche dealership location, off the premise and back to the side of the Frontage road previously in February as being the only nanny so far. This I can understand from a safety standpoint, but no other location as far as I can remember this year has had any major issues with a crowd forming to watch cars do dumb things on the road until today. It's inevitable that a future location will feature a bigger nanny than these security men, but I won't hold my breath for it. Thankfully, I can ignore The Rock's security and quietly move down the sidewalk through the crowd of thirty-odd people because I'll blend in normally with my casual clothing. Plus, they stop talking when a large crowd overwhelms them, and pulls them back to their assigned traffic duties. A poor lady fed them attention when told off, and it ruined her Sunday like that. Security like this deserve to see your sweaty back.

And so is watching cars fly by. A bit of a variety that my lens caught, but being close to the straight road was where the drivers could put their foot down for the crowd. Turning left where the road bends may lead to an easier way out to the highway, but it sure makes for a blind uphill corner speeding upward. I stood where I was in wet grass filming the cars putting the pedal down, and crackling their way past the speed bumps. Mind you, this area has a brick road for a median, meaning there's no obstruction for weaving around speed bumps. I don't blame anyone doing this as I have done it myself when I drove on this road to a parking space further from the show, but it is a typical Sunday.

The show is about to end, I am absolutely tired and hungry after a couple hours being outside in the hot weather, my hands are shaky, the water supply in my backpack is dipping, and my skin is sweating, so as to causing stickiness in my arms. Strangely, I hardly felt like I needed to pee throughout walking during the entire show because of how humid it had been all noon long. None of these excuses, however, gave me a reason to walk off from the cars leaving The Rock. I would've been kicking myself had I not stayed longer to the end, which was by 12:30 PM when I wrapped up my own day there.

McLaren, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, and the common sports car brands are most of my highlights on film. Seeing that orange '69 Camaro is gorgeous, as well as that silver '66 Impala whose production years I hopefully got close or correct. I recall a Silverado and a Mustang passing by that sound like the engine is knocking against a large frame of metal or some body panel. The freaking Ferrari Daytona SP3 with the 488 Pista appeared before my eyes, rolling down the public roads of San Antonio like it's no big deal. Then, the red Rolls-Royce was accompanied by the two cover cars of the event: the McLaren 600LT and the Porsche 718 GT4 RS. A shocker seeing Dennis and Co. leaving earlier than expected, but knowing the venue's time limit enforcement for such an event, I'm not surprised. Still very cool to catch them leaving the lot, and it's the first time I've filmed them on the road too. Tick.

Don't remind me. I had a headache going into Sunday's evening afterward, but I recovered from taking a couple of ibuprofen tablets. I guess it's what they call the "Hunger Headache" of fasting? Irritating when it happens.

Still, this was a darn good show that filled the plaza with mostly exotics and classics. My photo collection says that we were last here in December, which was six months ago at the time of writing this post! No wonder why I felt like I had came here yesterday, but given the effort our basketball team put into this season, it's a no-brainer location to root for their success. The amenities are nice, weather was cloudy rather than sunny, and I met car owners, all while celebrating the Spurs reaching the Finals in the NBA at none other than The Rock at La Cantera. It's getting hotter, so I'll have to remember to pack more than three water bottles behind me for next month. If you're bald, then wearing a cap will save your scalp from a sunburn. I speak from experience, reader.